With Leicester Tigers on their worst run in 43 years, it’s time they accepted that relegation is a real danger
A run of eight straight defeats, a coaching set-up ‘at its lowest ebb’ and a pack incapable of taking on the best in the league has Leicester looking down rather than up
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Your support makes all the difference.“Horrific.” “Horrible.” “The lowest ebb.” Asked about the confidence in the squad, Geordan Murphy answered “it’s very, very low, if non-existent”.
These are not the words that should be spoken by England’s most successful club in the professional era, but then they have not experienced a run of eight straight defeats in 43 years. With the club desperately searching for a defence coach to bring in and try to plug the gaps that have already been breached 54 times this season in just 13 games – conceding at an average of more than four tries per game – it is currently a case of just how bad can it get?
The answer: a lot worse.
With Leicester all but mathematically out of Europe and bottom of their Premiership Rugby Cup pool, the Premiership is all they have left to fight for. But rather than competing for the top four, as most pre-season predictions had them in the mix for third place behind runaway duo Saracens and Exeter Chiefs.
That they are only 10 points behind third-placed Gloucester with plenty to play for makes it no easier to point out that potential relegation is just three points below them. That is how close the relegation battle is this season, but the issue for Leicester is that of the teams below them, none have come close to conceding what the Tigers have.
Of their nine Premiership games and four Heineken Champions Cup matches so far this season, Leicester have conceded an average of just under 32 points per game. It is no surprise to see the club being linked with defensive experts Mike Ford and Dave Ellis, formerly of England and France respectively, but should they join Murphy’s backroom staff early in the new year, they are not exactly blessed with time to turn the sinking ship around.
Leicester need to accept that they are deep in a relegation fight – something that doesn’t really feel like it’s sunk in at Welford Road just yet – and once they do so, the results that come through grinding out performances and backs to the wall displays may return. Yet at a time when Premiership ring-fencing is very much on the agenda, no club can risk falling out of the top flight for even one year, such is the risk that comes with it.
Working out a defensive system that works is just one part of the problem, though. A look at the Leicester team sheet often leads analysts to claim that a squad of their calibre should be doing better. That’s fair to say, but in such a competitive league, how much better? Even a fully-strength pack hardly sends shockwaves through the Premiership as beyond Ellis Genge it’s hard to pick out a player is capable of the match-changing moments they currently lack.
The back line is clearly a star-studded one, but without a pack capable of producing the ball needed to inflict damage on teams, nothing will change at Leicester and that trap door will creep forever closer.
There has been plenty of criticism from supporters aimed towards the board at Leicester, and rightly so. The alarming turnover of coaches has not helped to maintain their identity, with Richard Cockerill, Aaron Mauger and Matt O’Connor all being chewed up and spat out the exit in the last 18 months. That Cockerill is now doing wonderful things with an Edinburgh side that is on the verge of qualifying for the Champions Cup last-eight – and earning himself links to a future England job in the process – will only infuriate those fans further.
Now imagine what will happen if a Harlequins side apparently on the up turn Leicester over when the Premiership resumes this weekend. With a former Leicester player in Paul Gustard at the helm – the same Paul Gustard who was the Saracens and England defence coach during recent double triumphs and Grand Slam wins – Quins are beginning to click. But should Gustard be at Welford Road?
Leicester were clearly in the market for a new boss earlier this year given that O’Connor was given all of one game to prove he wasn’t the right man at the start of the season, yet the board was caught napping and Quins stole a march to steal him from the England set-up. If Quins, sitting in fifth place, emerge victorious this Saturday, Leicester will be realistically among those cut adrift at the bottom that end up battling for the places outside of Champions Cup qualification come the end of the season – the place where no one wants to be when the awards are dished out.
The situation is getting bleaker by the week, and with signs that there best talent is monitoring the situation with concern in order to look for any potential escape routes should they be needed, sunnier climes are not on the horizon.
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